Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Rectify, Season 1, Episode 4 (2013)

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Rectify-Beatrice-DanteIn Season 1, Episode 4, of Sundance television show Rectify, titled “Plato’s Cave,” the protagonist Daniel Holden discusses life, death, and salvation with his sister-in-law, Tawney.

Tawney: “I care about you… and I would just hate it if you went to hell. I mean, if there is — I don’t know.”

Daniel: “You’re my Beatrice.”

Tawney: “What?”

Daniel: “From the Divine Comedy.”

Tawney: “I — I don’t know who that is.”

Daniel: “She was Dante’s guide, his salvation.”

Tawney: “Well I — I don’t know about that.”

Daniel: “It was fiction.”

To view the scene online, click here.

Contributed by Matteo Soranzo.

Raffaella Silvestri, “A Ray of Literary Hope on Italian TV”

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raffaella-silvestri-picture

“Some 10 percent of Italian households did not own a single book. According to the 2013 Survey of Adult Skills by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, nearly 70 percent of the country of Dante and di Lampedusa is unable to ‘understand and respond appropriately to dense or lengthy texts.'”

—Raffaella Silvestri, “A Ray of Literary Hope on Italian TV,” The New York Times, April 21, 2014

Futurama, “Hell is Other Robots” (1999)

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Futurama

In the ninth episode of Season One of Matt Groening’s Futurama, the robot Bender is condemned to Hell after violating his contract with the Temple of Robotology.  In their search for Bender, his friends track his scent to the Inferno ride at Reckless Ted’s Funland.  Meanwhile, the Robot Devil leads Bender around the circles of Robot Hell in a song.  The Devil explains: “We know all your sins, Bender, and for each one we have prepared an agonizing and ironic punishment.”

Click here for more information about the episode.

Watch the video clip of the Robot Devil’s song here.

“Kindred Spirits: A Juxtaposition of Dante & Dickens”

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dante-and-scrooge“. . . I cannot recall a time when I didn’t know the story of A Christmas Carol. The images and themes have delighted or haunted me since my childhood, either in the form of the ‘Dickens Village’ adventure at the mall or the hundredth or so viewing of the Muppet version. (Michael Caine, you will always be my Scrooge.) So when I studied Dante’s Commedia in college, it was no leap for me to recognize the countless similarities between the two stories. I would write C.C. in the margin every time I came across another bit of Dickens in Dante. At long last, I can pitch some these ideas to the wider world.”     –Kathyrn (blogger), Through a Glass Brightly, December 18, 2013

Contributed by Patrick Molloy

“Fall Sweeps”: A Dante Read-Along

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DanteDetailLarge“Something is gnawing at the nape of your skull: on the one hand, your favorite fall shows are coming back…”

“You want to watch Boardwalk Empire—what will happen to Nucky Thompson, or Richard Harrow? You want to catch up on The Walking Dead, but then you remember that synaptic pruning, and a frightening question about the difference between you and an actual zombie floats through your head.

“The convenience of hour-long shows is that they often air on Sunday night, when you have nothing to do. We have a compromise. Don’t spend an hour on the latest would-be cable sensation; instead, tune in for the first season of The Divine Comedy, the hot, new (relatively speaking) series by Dante. Every week, ideally on Sunday at 9 P.M., read one canto—often less than 140 lines!—of what may be the best poem ever written. Season 1 is called the Inferno—think of it as your new Home Box Office.” [. . .]    –Alexander Aciman, The Paris Review, September 30th, 2013

See also Aciman’s Recapping Dante (the Inferno)

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How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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